Today, you'd be hard pressed to convince Empty-V suits to actually put music videos on at an hour when it really matters. No, they'd rather spam the cheaply produced "reality" shows into the ground, hoping no one remembers the network's origins, a year before their 40th anniversary.
In 1998, the news department began MTV Ultrasound, a new docu-series that not only took on the challenge of revisiting previous subjects that had been covered on, say for example, Rockumentary, but also turning back the curtain on the channel's past.
Chris Connelly, now with ESPN, was the series host during the course of Ultrasound's run (1998-2001). The following sample is a December 2000 replay of a 1998 profile on the network's original 5 VJ's.
MTV debuted on most upstate NY cable systems six months after its debut. Meaning, the channel, which premiered on August 1, 1981, landed in the hometown in February 1982, along with WTBS, among others. VJ Alan Hunter had appeared in a David Bowie video ("Fashion") prior to signing on with the network. The late JJ Jackson, who passed away in 2004, had been heard, but not seen, in the 1976 movie, "Car Wash".
In 1999, Ultrasound would do a follow-up, covering the 2nd unit (i.e. Downtown Julie Brown, Adam Curry, et al). Maybe we'll pop that in sometime.
Rating: A.
No comments:
Post a Comment